Yu Darvish did all he could to make the pittance the Padres' hitters managed stand up.
Josh Hader did what he needed to finish off Darvish's gem.
With that, the Padres beat the Mariners 2-0 Tuesday night at T-Mobile Park.
The Padres scored a run in the fourth inning and another in the ninth. They were hitless in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position.
But the Mariners could do virtually nothing against Darvish.
Eugenio Suarez lined a single to left field with two outs in the first inning before Darvish retired 16 straight batters. Ty France's single leading off the seventh halted that streak, but a strikeout of Suarez and a double play grounder by Carlos Santana ended the inning.
It was the 14th time Darvish has gone at least seven innings this season, tied for second most in the majors.
He was at 83 pitches when he began the eighth and 94 when the inning (and his night) was over, finishing with seven strikeouts while allowing the two singles and walking none.
Hader struck out the first two batters he faced before Julio Rodriguez singled. Hader ended the game when France swung through the 10th pitch of his at-bat.
Darvish took six pitches to get through the fourth inning and threw 11 more in the fifth. His 59 pitches to that point were three fewer than he had taken to complete five innings on Aug. 18 against the Nationals. That night, he allowed three runs on five hits in a season-high 8 1/3 innings.
Darvish has gone at least six innings all but two of his 27 starts this season. The 25 starts that long are tied for the major league lead with the Astros' Framber Valdez and the Yankees' Gerritt Cole.
The Padres, who had lost two straight entering Tuesday's game, needed a victory to maintain their two-game lead over the Brewers in the race for the final National League wild-card spot.
The Brewers on Tuesday won the first of their nine straight games against division leaders.
The opposite of what Darvish did was how Mariners starter Logan Gilbert got through his five innings.
The Padres had at least one base-runner every inning and Gilbert threw at least 21 pitches in all but one inning, finishing with 107 in all.
Wil Myers' double, which scored Jake Cronenworth from first base in the fourth inning, drove in the Padres' only run against him. But that Gilbert was allowed to get as far as he did was somewhat shocking.
He was at 103 pitches after issuing a two-out walk to Juan Soto, yet Mariners manager Scott Servais did not move from the home dugout as Manny Machado walked to the plate. Servias also stayed put after Machado grounded a single through the left side on the first pitch he saw.
That brought up Josh Bell, who hit a ball into the dirt in front of the plate and was thrown out to end the inning.
Reliever Erik Swanson struck out all three batters he faced in the sixth.
The Padres got their third runner in scoring position with one out in the seventh. That flamed out when Trent Grisham, who had reached on a single and advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Austin Nola, was thrown out in a rundown on Jurickson Profar's hard grounder to Suarez at third base. With Grisham having taken a sizable lead off the bag, the 100.9 mph grounder right at Suarez left him vulnerable. Former Padres minor leaguer Matt Brash came in and got Juan Soto on a fielder's choice grounder to end the inning.
The Padres again were unable to capitalize on a runner at second with one out in the eighth. With help from a mishandled grounder, they actually had runners at the corners with one out. But Ha-Seong Kim's bunt went almost directly back to Brash, freezing pinch-runner Luis Liberato at third base while Kim was thrown out, and Myers struck out.
Singles by Nola and Profar, plus an error by center fielder Rodriguez that allowed Nola to take an extra 90 feet, again gave the Padres runners at the corners with one out in the ninth. This time, they got a run, as Soto's slow grounder to pitcher Paul Sewald (USD) got Nola home.
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